gary wills. [applause] >> pardon me for sitting. i can't stand for any length of time. we're asked to talk about our life in writing. my life in writing is tied up in st. augustine. i studied him in high school and studied him in college, read him all my adult life, and more and more over the decades, i concentrated on him, wrote a life on him, translated the confessions, commented on the confessions, and working on my favorite book of his, the trinity. this book came out of that reading because st. augustine did not believe that the bread and win given out at mass is the body and blood of jesus christ. he said that's ridiculous. you don't eat god, you don't digest god. he said that over and over. what is the body of christ, he said? st. paul tells us you are the body of cryings. the people of god, the mystical body, the church is the body of christ. well, i've noticed it was odd that's hardly referred to the fact that he didn't believe that that was the case, and he said it frequently and emphatically. i talked to peter brown, the great expert, and he was told by catho